


Faith Proves Nothing

by Suzume



Category: Suikoden III
Genre: Community: kinkfest, F/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-30
Updated: 2008-09-30
Packaged: 2017-10-14 09:26:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/147802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzume/pseuds/Suzume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Albert and Sarah have different views concerning both Luc and love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faith Proves Nothing

    Before things could move fast, they first had to move slowly.  One could not walk into Harmonia one day and be ordained as a bishop the next, and so they had come to Campanella.  _They_ had turned out to be more than Sarah had expected with the addition of Yuber and Albert to their little group.  She did not care for the black clad man one bit.  Albert Silverberg, on the other hand...well, her feelings regarding him were more complex.

            "How do you support Luc?"

"By believing in him."

            "Faith proves nothing," Albert said, cold and calm as ever with those half-lidded eyes.

            There was no flaming spark in the interlocking of their eyes.  Sarah challenged him with a harsh stare, but Albert did not respond in kind.  "I haven't done much yet, but before this is over, you'll see the real extent of my abilities," she concluded, ending that discussion for the moment.

            Albert folded the newspaper and took a sip of his coffee.  Sarah looked down at her hands, folded daintily in her lap.  "You have a fire burning in you that you usually keep hidden," Albert observed, "And now that I've seen it, I won't soon forget it."

            Sarah did not respond to this foolishness.  Albert did not provoke people with an angry, raised voice, but with a well-chosen comment.  Of course, one could not be provoked without allowing oneself to rise to the bait.  Sarah wouldn't do it.  She kept her hands folded, sitting patient and quiet.

            Albert raised an eyebrow over the top of his coffee mug.  He had meant his words as a compliment.  It was her decision to see them in another light.

 

            United in their common cause, they came to a sort of understanding, and in the illusions Sarah constructed for the general amusement of the rapidly declining Bishop Markley, Albert began to have an inkling of the type and depths of her power.  When Albert spoke with Markley it was clear for him to see that Luc was quickly gaining his trust.  His machinations here were merely additional insurance.  The strategist's real work was in Crystal Valley and wherever else Bishop Sasarai went.

            "The future bishop's wife," Markley called Sarah on occasion.  Albert did not correct him.  Markley's opinions about the succession were already well-established.  "Sir Silverberg, that's a rising star you've caught hold of," Markley noted quietly, 'Wouldn't you be making better use of your talents with someone less charismatic?  A puppet bishop?"

            Albert chuckled at the mere idea of it.  "I have no interest in getting a foot in the door of the governing Counsel.  Do you mistake me for an Orsini?"  Markley smiled with him, nodding in silent agreement with this statement, but Albert smirked at the irony of the older man's words.  Who said he didn't have control of this bishop?  Who said he didn't control two?

 

            Alone in their third floor flat, Albert touched Sarah's arm.  "What?" she turned to face him.

            "Do you dream of being Luc's wife?"

            "Don't be silly.  I'm not so much of a hopeless romantic as that.  Master Luc has no time for love or marriage with everything hanging on his plan."  Though Sarah spoke the words clearly and with strength, she did not mean them.  Against all reality, she had hope.

            Albert stepped close to her, touching her pale cheek and bringing in his lips, so close that they were breathing the same breath.  "If you're not waiting for Luc, then perhaps you can make some time for me."

            Her long skirt covered her all the way to her ankles, but still she shuddered as he laid his gloved hand on her thigh.  After all the heavy glances and longing looks she had dealt out over the years that remained unnoticed and unanswered, Sarah's trembling at this action was not entirely of fear.  There was a part of her that had never been fulfilled.  A part of her that might never be fulfilled.

            Luc had made her no promises.  Why have faith in something might have never been there to begin with when there was an offer like this before her?  Blood that would never boil versus this red-hot gaze and grasp...  "I'm not waiting," she whispered, closing her eyes.  Albert kissed her, all passion and searching, pushing her against the wall.  She let her arms hang awkwardly at her sides.

            Breaking the kiss he stepped away.  "Something is holding you back," he observed, "Whether your mean for it or not."  HIs eyes glinted wildly as some thought ran through his mind.  "...You don't trust me."

            "Why bother?" she answered, "If faith proves nothing."  She clasped her hand over her stomach and turned to walk away toward the bedroom she shared with Luc due to the space constraints of their temporary headquarters.

            There was that fire again.  Albert would not claim he was interested in proclaiming his undying affection for the white-faced mage, but he certainly did want to see where that hidden spark might lead.  Though she might in reality be a mysterious nobody, Sarah's polite and rigid bearing appealed to his attraction to aristocratic women.  He followed her into the bedroom where she sat on the bed unlacing her boots.

            "What do you want now?" she asked, anxiously avoiding making eye contact.

            "To teach you a little about faith."  He shed his heavy coat as he approached, allowing it to drop slowly from his shoulders to the floor.

            Sarah pursed her lips and set her boots aside neatly.  She had just had her first kiss.  She couldn't say she regretted it, despite how it differed from the kisses she had imagine.  And because it was real, in many ways it was better.  Despite some remaining reservations, she allowed him to approach.

            Discarding shoes, socks, and scarf, he continued into the dim room and knelt on the bed, pulling the blond girl into his arms.  This time she responded by placing her hands lightly on his back.  Fingers drawing ten soft trails over his close-fitting black shirt spurred him onward.  What pleasure was there in unreciprocated lust?  "I'm going to reach up your skirt," he warned her devilishly, moving his hands to let her lay back on top of the bed.

            He fussed through the layers of fabric to find her white, slender legs.  She sucked in a quick breath as he traced his fingers along the inside of her leg from her ankle, past her knee, to her soft thigh.

            "Before...before you go any farther, kiss me again," she sighed, running her cool fingers through his deep red hair.

            He lunged with lips, holding his hand back from its ultimate destination.

            Did he really taste like cinnamon, or was it only her imagination...?  Ever the consummate strategist, Albert clearly knew when to be brutal and when to be gentle.  Now he was gentle, but every so often his actions quickened, offering a hint of the force he held back as he acted.  "Can you get my belt?"

            Sarah complied meekly, body trembling from the slightest brush of his fingers.  As her hand passed over his crotch, she considered what might come next from an intellectual standpoint and she wavered once again, unsure of what she really wanted.  "Touch me," Albert hissed, "And I'll do the same."

            Cautiously, Sarah moved her fingers along the strategist's stomach down to his- "Ah!" she gasped suddenly, distracted from her task.

            "Some part of you does think of yourself as the future bishop's wife," Albert pushed up her skirt, tugging off her underwear, and beginning to spread her legs.

            "Do you care?" she responded, trying to act nonchalant.

            He ignored the question.  "Next is penetration," he announced, continuing his act of somehow inspiring some sort of trust in her.

            Sarah averted her eyes nervously.  It was a lie- she couldn't deny that she really did think just what he'd suggested.  She closed her eyes tight.  ...But it didn't have to say a lie...here was Albert...responding as Luc never would, simultaneously exciting and annoying her...her devotion would only show through if she lived and died for Luc.  Albert asked no such thing.  ...It was sure taking a long time for anything to happen.  She opened her periwinkle eyes.  "Albert?"

            He had turned away to sit with his back to her with his legs hanging over the side of the bed.  A tremor ran down his spine as he finished what they had begun on his own.

            "Why didn't you...?  I was ready for it," Sarah inquired, wrinkling her nose.  This sudden turnabout was beyond her.  She had been so ready to surrender to him, to rethink her current path, and now...  Her face fell as his angle registered in her mind.  "I trusted you.  I trusted you to do what you said."

            "Don't be so stupid as to throw everything away like that," he glanced at her over his shoulder.  Self-consciously, she pushed her skirt back over her legs.  "Remember- faith proves nothing."

            "I wasn't going to throw everything away," she insisted, clenching her hands into fists.  How dare he lead her on like that!  "I was just having some fun.  Just like you."  It wasn't really as simple as that, but she could not bear to admit it to him after this.

            "Faith does mean something," she whimpered.

            "I see you have some Harmonian sentiments in you yet."  He did not say it mockingly.  He paused, smiling almost pleasantly.  "Perhaps laundry day should begin before Luc returns."

            "It will," Sarah decided.  That was at least one thing she could be sure


End file.
